


Andrew and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by gluupor



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: AFTG Exchange, Angst, Canon Compliant, Groundhog Day, M/M, Sort Of, Temporary Character Death, They keep dying but they're in a time loop, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 14:27:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20341624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gluupor/pseuds/gluupor
Summary: On the evening of March 9th, Neil Josten was kidnapped and there was nothing that Andrew could do but wait for news. He fell asleep waiting for news.He woke up on the afternoon of March 9th.





	Andrew and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nerdzeword](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/gifts).

> This is a super last-minute pinch hit for @nerdzewordart. You gave me so much leeway, I was like a kid in a sandbox! I chose prompts: andreil, AU (I chose groundhog day AU!), and there's background twinyards, too. I hope you like it!

**0**

Andrew woke on the bus. He hadn’t expected to sleep; off his medication he could never relax enough to do anything more than doze, even when only surrounded by the other Foxes. Kevin was still up at the front of the bus with the upperclassmen, and Neil—Neil who had asked Andrew to release him from their deal and then proceeded to tell him stories about his past travels and looked at Andrew in a way that made him want to stab Neil’s eyes out—Neil was humming to himself in the seat in front of Andrew’s and idly tracing designs on the glass.

Andrew yawned and stretched, glancing out the window for any road signs to give him their location. They were only a couple miles outside of Binghamton; they’d make it to the court shortly.

The rest of his teammates were amped up as they prepared for the game. Kevin and Neil were whispering together, and Boyd kept loudly repeating to the room to watch their point gap. None of the nerves or excitement touched Andrew; nothing short of standing on the edge of a roof or pinning Neil down and kissing him senseless could garner any feeling from him these days. It would take something major to pierce his cloak of apathy.

The only thing to even pique his interest happened between halves—Neil asked him to shut down the goal and in return promised “anything”. The promise—the fact that he knew Neil would honour it, coupled with the realization that Neil trusted him so much that he knew Andrew wouldn’t abuse the privilege—made a curl of anger hook deep in his gut. Neil was a liar and Andrew was uncontrollable; what right did Neil have to insinuate otherwise?

He shut down the goal as he promised, only allowing one goal in. The single goal was Aaron’s fault: his laziness and overconfidence let the opposing strikers overwhelm Andrew’s weaker side. Still, the Foxes won by a big enough point gap that meant they were moving to the next round of the playoffs, which is what Neil wanted. It irked Andrew very slightly that he hadn’t been able to shut the other team out completely; he’d have to downgrade whatever he asked Neil for in return.

Andrew was one of the first ones showered and changed after the game. There weren't any stalls in the showers, but even taking that into account, Neil was taking a very long time to join them. Andrew was sore from his exertions and was looking forward to getting back on the bus, where he could relax and hopefully get some more sleep on their long trip back tonight.

Two campus security guards showed up, speaking quietly to Wymack about unexpected rowdiness going on in the parking lot. Andrew didn’t pay the fake pigs any attention, keeping his eyes on the door waiting for Neil.

When he finally arrived, there was something off about his demeanour, a look in his eyes that Andrew didn’t recognize. He waited expectantly for Neil to explain.

Instead, “Thank you,” said Neil quietly, his desperate eyes boring into Andrew’s. “You were amazing.”

Andrew froze at the words, the expected praise sending shockwaves through his body. Before he could react, could demand what was bothering Neil, the security guards ushered him away, leading them out toward the bus.

It was moments before chaos reigned.

When the dust settled and Neil was missing, Andrew was mostly surprised with how surprised he was. Neil was a pipe dream who was never meant to be around long term. After getting Andrew to release him from their deal, Andrew should have expected him to disappear. But this wasn’t the same. This was a duffel left behind in the dirt, keys and phone inside. This was a precious exy racquet discarded like garbage. This was a knife wound; a long thin slice up his arm that was numb in the moments before the pain and the blood rushed forth.

The pain hit, mindless as ever, and Andrew found himself strangling Kevin for answers as the blood pounded in his head and clouded his vision.

After forcibly separating them and making threats that Andrew didn’t hear or acknowledge, Wymack took them to a seedy-looking motel so they could rest while they waited for news about Neil. Andrew had no intention of sleeping; he took up sentry duty on the low bench by the window as Kevin and his family got into their beds.

He tried to smoke but his hands were shaking too badly; the familiar smell now reminding him of Neil. He wanted to bash his head into the window pane to destroy his thoughts.

As the adrenaline rush left him blinking sleepily and fighting to stay awake, the only thing running through his head was the refrain, _I could have saved him if I’d known_.

**1**

Andrew woke on the bus. He started violently, not remembering making the trip from the motel room back onto the bus. He caught himself before he hit the floor.

“Everything okay?” asked Neil—_Neil_—peering over the back of his seat, his eyes amused.

Andrew was on his feet in an instant, gripping Neil’s head hard enough that he winced.

His assessment didn’t show any visible injuries but that still didn’t explain why Neil was here.

“What _happened_?” he demanded, not able to make himself sound anything panicked and demanding. “Where have you been?”

Neil’s face creased in confusion. “What do you mean, where have I been? Here, on the bus.”

“And yesterday?”

“Uh, class, practice, night practice, on the roof. You were there for most of it.”

“That wasn’t yesterday,” spat Andrew. “Yesterday after our game in Binghamton you disappeared.”

“I—” Neil faltered. “We’re on our way to Binghamton _now_,” he said pointedly. “Are you feeling okay? I thought your memory was perfect.” He was aiming for a joking tone, but he missed it by several miles.

Andrew looked around. His memory _was_ perfect. And everything on the bus was exactly the way it had been the day before. Everyone was dressed in the same clothes, sitting in the same seats, doing the same things. A sign telling him they were a couple miles from Binghamton flashed outside the window, the same blue as it had been the day before.

He flipped open his phone. March 9th. It was still March 9th. Or… it was March 9th again.

He breathed in slowly, the implications hitting him. He was getting a do-over, a chance to save Neil.

Neil was still giving him concerned looks over the back of his seat. Andrew darted out a hand and stole his phone, ignoring Neil’s annoyed, “Hey!” and his attempts to grab it back.

“What is this?” he asked icily, opening up Neil’s texts to find exactly what he was expecting. “A countdown? Is this why you wanted me to break our deal?”

Neil’s face took on a stubborn set. “It’s none of your business.”

Andrew popped him on the back of the head. “It’s my business if you die on my watch.”

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to complain to you if someone broke my face.”

“Who is the Butcher?”

Neil froze completely, his mouth open in a shocked o. Andrew poked his arm forcefully.

“Where did you hear that name?” Neil whispered.

“He’s your father, isn’t he?” asked Andrew brutally. “Your father that you told me is dead. He’s the one who’s after you.”

“He’s in jail,” Neil said, barely audibly.

“He’s not. He’s not and _you didn’t tell me_!” He slammed Neil’s phone into the ground, shattering it into pieces. He hadn’t realized that he’d started shouting until he was panting into the eerie quiet, the frightened eyes of his teammates watching him.

Neil’s expression was half-afraid and half-defiant.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” said Andrew, forcibly calming himself. “You’re going to tell me everything and when those fuckers come for you, I’m going to kill them.”

**2**

Andrew woke on the bus. He gasped for air, still feeling the impact of the bullet in his chest. He looked around wildly. Neil was in the seat in front of him, not bleeding on the ground like the last time he’d glimpsed him. Andrew closed his eyes tightly. His murdering-long-time-members-of-the-mob plan had not gone off without a hitch. He didn’t know what had set off the man—Romero, Neil had whispered—but he’d caught wind of their intentions. He’d shot Neil first, and then turned the gun on Andrew before he could react.

He needed a new plan. For whatever reason the universe seemed to be giving him multiple tries to get this right.

Neil looked back at Andrew, smiling softly. He obviously had no memory of the previous two days and Andrew was not going to enlighten him. Romero had no reason to suspect Andrew; he’d never see him coming.

After the game—which was even more boring than usual now that Andrew knew the exact way the ball would bounce—he stood along the wall of the lounge, waiting for the fake campus cops to arrive. Renee seemed to pick up on how antsy he was, coming over to him as her eyes darted side to side looking for threats. He waved her off, counting down the seconds until the man who had shot him and Neil entered the room.

Andrew struck out with his knives, slashing for the man’s weak points. He gurgled as Andrew’s knife sliced into his carotid artery, slumping to the floor. Andrew’s teammates were all shouting in fear and surprise but he ignored them, watching for Romero’s backup. Jackson hurried in, his gun already up. He got a single shot away before Andrew was on him, tackling him to the floor and stabbing him over and over.

There. They were dead. Neil was safe.

He glanced over his shoulder at the other Foxes, doing a double take when there were only seven people standing. Their attention was on a huddle in the middle of the room. Nicky was clasping his hands together in front of his body, staring down at a figure on the floor who Abby was frantically bustling around. _No_, thought Andrew wildly, taking account of who he couldn’t see._ No, no, no, no, no_. He rushed to Aaron’s side, pressing his hands into the bloody, gaping wound in his abdomen.

Aaron looked up at him through pain-hazed eyes, his lips covered in blood. He mouthed a couple words before reaching a bloody hand out to touch Andrew’s face.

“No,” Andrew breathed out. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to _happen_. He wasn’t willing to trade Aaron’s life for Neil’s.

**3**

Andrew woke on the bus. He glanced at his hands, half-expecting them to still be covered in Aaron’s blood, but they were clean. Well, as clean as a murderer’s hands ever got. He stood abruptly, heading down the aisle to where Aaron was sitting, sliding into the seat beside his brother. Aaron was looking at him with a mixture of outrage and contempt.

“You can date your cheerleader,” Andrew said roughly. “I won’t object.”

Aaron gaped like a fish, taken aback. “What do you want in return?” he asked suspiciously.

“Nothing,” replied Andrew. “I want you to be happy.”

He returned to the back of the bus, ignoring all the curious eyes that followed him. He needed a new plan. He wouldn’t allow a repeat of yesterday to happen ever again.

**16**

Andrew woke on the bus. He hadn’t died yesterday, which was beginning to be a rarity, but his plan still hadn’t worked. There was too much working against him. He silently watched Neil for a couple minutes, letting himself go through options. A car passed them, driving above the speed limit.

He hadn’t tried running yet. That would have been Neil’s first plan, but Andrew wasn’t built the same way. He had to admit it had its merits; the goddamn Butcher of Baltimore couldn’t send his people to kidnap his son if he didn’t know where he was, now could he?

Andrew separated Neil from the rest of the Foxes when they arrived in Binghamton, waving Wymack ahead of them. Then he herded Neil over to one of the nicer cars parked nearby.

“Get in,” he said. “We’re going.”

“What? No, we’ve got a game,” Neil protested.

“Neil,” said Andrew sharply, then gritted his teeth against what he said next. “Please.”

Neil blanched, but got to work breaking into the car and hotwiring it. “Where are we going?” he asked tersely once the engine turned over.

“Away,” said Andrew. “South. West.”

Neil nodded once and eased the car out of the parking lot, being careful not to attract attention by driving erratically.

He waited until they were several miles outside of Binghamton before he spoke to Andrew again. “Are you going to tell me _why_ or—”

“Eyes on the road.”

Neil rolled his eyes but complied. Andrew kept his own eyes on the mirror, checking for anyone tailing them. It meant that when a truck swerved out of oncoming traffic and slammed into them, he didn’t see it coming.

**47**

Andrew woke on the bus. He shuddered; he could still feel Lola’s hands on him from where she sliced into his hands as Neil begged her to stop. Now he knew going with Neil when he was kidnapped wasn’t an option. Back to the drawing board.

**63**

Andrew woke on the bus. Today’s plan was complicated and intricate and would require focus, but he was so tired. All he wanted to do was rest. As long as Aaron and Neil were alive, he could rest, instead of repeating the day over and over. He knew he could do it; he just had to figure out the right combination of factors.

His preoccupation didn’t go unnoticed. Neil’s razor sharp gaze kept boring into him, but he wouldn’t ask if Andrew made it clear he didn’t want to say anything. What he wasn’t expecting was Aaron’s attention.

Aaron pulled him aside before the game started. “I’ll help,” he said quietly.

Andrew stared at him.

“Whatever you’re planning, whatever you’re up to, I’ll help. No matter what it is.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Andrew blandly.

“You think I don’t remember how you acted before you and Mom got in that car crash?” said Aaron heatedly. “I’m telling you that I’ll help. With _whatever_. Okay?”

Andrew couldn’t say anything at first, completely taken aback. He’d thought that there was no hope for him and Aaron, that Aaron no longer wanted anything to do with him. But this wasn’t the first time during his time loops that Aaron had indicated that he was on his side. If he ever found a way to stop what was happening, maybe there was a future for them to be brothers.

**82**

Andrew woke on the bus. Something that Lola had taunted him with—“If you knew this was going to happen, why didn’t you just go to the _cops_?”—was teasing at his brain. The FBI. He could call the FBI. He and Neil had talked it over enough times that he knew that was Neil’s plan all along. He’d just move up the timetable. Neil could tell them everything he knew about his father’s organization and get placed in witsec, and Andrew… His chest seized. Andrew would never see him again but he’d be _alive_ and that would be better than this; this day repeated over and over again; seeing Neil die in different ways over and over again. Anything would be better than this.

He wasn’t particularly surprised when the agent sent to meet them was secretly on the Moriyama payroll. Neil died in his arms. Again.

**112**

Andrew woke on the bus. He was on his feet in an instant, running down the aisle to grab the wheel and steer them into oncoming traffic. If they were _all_ dead, maybe the loop would stop. If they were all dead, he could rest. As long as they were all together, it would be okay.

**139**

Andrew woke on the bus. He was officially out of ideas. Maybe if he just lay down and let the day happen…

He refused to get off the bus once it reached the court, ignoring Neil’s soft-eyed entreaties, Kevin’s demands, Aaron’s snide comments, and Wymack’s requests. Wymack eventually shut everyone up and ordered them off the bus. He watched Andrew silently for several minutes before pulling out his phone and making a call.

Andrew didn’t register what he was saying, but soon the phone was being shoved into his unresisting hands. He held it up to his ear, only to hear Bee’s calm voice saying his name.

He choked up. It had been _so long_ since he’d heard from her. “Bee,” he managed to say through his laboured breathing.

She didn’t shush him or give him useless platitudes, she simply stayed on the line speaking softly about nothing important as she waited for him to get a hold of himself.

“Today after the game Neil is going to be kidnapped by people who work for his father and tortured,” Andrew said. Bee gasped. “I can’t stop it. I’ve tried.”

There was a brief pause. “What do you mean, you’ve tried?”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve lived March 9th,” said Andrew. “Over and over I’ve tried to save him, but it’s—I _can’t_.” The acknowledgement of his failure stung. “And I can’t stop reliving this day; no matter what I do, no matter how many times I die, I keep waking up on the fucking bus.”

“Are you planning on hurting yourself?”

“It doesn’t matter if I am.”

“I disagree. It matters a lot to me.”

“Well, you won’t remember by tomorrow,” said Andrew bitterly.

“Alright, let’s work it through,” said Bee calmly. “What happened right before this started?”

“What, you believe me?” scoffed Andrew.

“Either you’re looping in time or you believe you are,” replied Bee. “I believe that figuring out the reason why you’re doing so might help in either case.”

“There is no _why_.”

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m not saying that it’s a good reason,” said Bee, her voice hardening. “I’m not giving you clichés about your abuse making you a stronger person. Your abuse happened because you were a vulnerable child placed in the care of abusers. Our universe works on a system of cause and effect. The cause isn’t necessarily malicious or intentional, but it’s there all the same. Car accidents are all precipitated by something, be it negligence or another driver or faulty mechanics. Every reaction has an action.”

Andrew cast his mind back, trying to remember the very first loop. “Neil was taken; I didn’t know then by whom,” he said slowly. “I was… I was trying not to fall asleep, think about how I could have saved him if I’d known.”

“Then maybe it’s as simple as that. You can’t save him. You have to accept that.”

“I won’t. I won’t lose him.”

“What else happened of import that first day?”

Andrew thought hard, thinking about anything else significant. “He made me let him out of our deal,” he said, exhaling. “He said I had to let him stand on his own two feet. That he wanted to come back for me.”

“Well then.”

“No,” said Andrew stubbornly. “What if he doesn’t?” This was why he was trying to keep Neil at an arm’s length, the inevitability of losing him. Over his many loops he’d admitted to himself that Neil meant something to him, but he wasn’t willing to admit it to the universe at large. The universe had a bad habit of taking away anything Andrew wanted. He didn’t trust the universe to give Neil back.

“That’s what love is, Andrew,” she said patiently. “Trusting that the other person will come back to you.”

**140**

Andrew woke on the bus. The last thing he remembered was listening to Bee’s calming voice; he must have dozed off without realizing it. Today… he gazed at Neil silently. Today he wasn’t going to do anything to change what had happened.

It felt like going through the motions. He got ready for the game, shut down the goal (he even started yelling instructions to his backliners, knowing exactly how the play would go), dressed and waited in the lounge. He didn’t attack Romero or Jackson when they arrived.

“Thank you,” said Neil tremulously. “You were amazing.”

_Come back to me_, thought Andrew in response.

He played his part as he remembered it: panicking when he realized Neil was gone, finding his bag, going through his phone, strangling Kevin. All the time he was desperately asking the universe to give Neil back to him. _You’ve never given me anything before_, he thought vehemently. _Give me this_.

This time he managed to get a cigarette lit as he sat at the motel window, his thoughts looping, _come back, come back, come back_. He knew if he fell asleep the day would reset but his eyes kept falling closed, pulling him closer and closer to sleep.

His head had just fallen forward onto his knees when a sharp knock on the door made him jerk awake. It was Wymack.

“Get on the bus,” he said brusquely. “Neil’s alive.”

**+1**

Andrew woke on the bus. He panicked. He’d thought he’d fixed it. The day before had been interminable: the drive to Baltimore, the argument with the FBI, seeing Neil wounded, answering the FBI’s questions. They’d been given cots to pass the night but Andrew hadn’t dared let himself sleep, not until everything was over and Neil was still with him.

He’d passed out almost instantly as soon as they’d gotten on the bus back to Palmetto.

His groggy mind took a couple moments to come online but when it did, he noticed the differences that said he wasn’t still in the loop: it was dark, everyone was sleeping, and Neil was wrapped in bandages. Andrew watched him sleep until he started to feel creepy. He couldn’t imagine ever sleeping again without worrying that he’d end up back on the bus. He couldn’t imagine sleeping without Neil within an arm’s reach.

“‘Ndrew,” muttered Neil sleepily, blinking his eyes open. “Whazzit?”

“Nothing,” said Andrew. “Go back to sleep.” Neil obeyed without complaint, trusting Andrew to keep him safe.

Andrew leaned back in his seat, letting his eyes fall shut.

Andrew fell asleep on the bus.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on tumblr [@gluupor](http://gluupor.tumblr.com).


End file.
